Bert Fields Memorial: Jeffrey Katzenberg, Tom Cruise, Elaine May And Dustin Hoffman Say Goodbye To A Fearless Friend
deadline.comHollywood powerbrokers past and present officially said goodbye to one of their own Sunday. Bert Fields, who died August 8 at the age of 93, was celebrated today by clients, family and colleagues at a memorial service in Santa Monica.
Jeffrey Katzenberg, Dustin Hoffman, Susan Estrich and Michael Ovitz paid tribute to the Greenberg Glusker Fields Claman & Machtinger LLP partner and industry consigliere in front of a well-heeled crowd that included Fields’ widow Barbara Guggenheim, Leslie Moonves and Julie Chen Moonves, Frank Marshall and Kathleen Kennedy, uber-producer Jerry Bruckheimer and David Geffen among many others.
Individually, Katzenberg, Hoffman and Ovitz remembered a man who was clearly as much their friend as he was their lawyer. “Like the greatest of gladiators, he loved to take on formidable foes,” said Katzenberg of Fields, who represented him in the late 1990s during Katzenberg’s multimillion-dollar payout battle against Disney.
Calling the attorney a “kind, loyal and generous friend,” and a “superhero,” the former DreamWorks Animation boss got a chuckle from the packed crowd at the Eli and Edythe Broad Stage by noting Fields’ “wicked sense of humor.” Later, an emotional Hoffman spoke of Fields’ “fearless” nature — a quality that was repeated again and again this afternoon.
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